Frametop is a desktop for the Steam Frame that runs on the headset itself, with no PC. Put several monitors around you, pull app windows out to float on their own, and point with a mouse, or with your eyes.
- Screens that are real monitors. Each KDE Plasma screen has its own resolution and shape: an ultrawide in front, portrait screens beside it. Move, resize, curve, and roll them, or pin one to your wrist or your head. They come back to your layout when the desktop starts.
- Windows that float on their own. Take any app window off the screens into a panel of its own with Meta+Shift+F, its title bar button, or Launch as Standalone. It stays part of the desktop, so drag and drop and the clipboard still work between floating windows and the screens.
- Profiles. Save where your screens are, which ones show, and which apps are open where. Switch to a profile from Display Settings, a key, or its launcher entry, or start the desktop in one.
- One mouse for all of SteamVR. A Bluetooth mouse drives a small dot anchored in the room. It works the screens, the dashboard, Steam, and overlays, and hands the laser back when you pick up a controller.
- Look and click (experimental). In gaze mode the pointer goes where you look. Meta+J and Meta+K, or the mouse buttons, click and fine-tune, and each correction teaches the tracker. Calibration runs in the headset.
- Made for long sessions. The displays turn off when the headset isn't used, even on a stand that makes it seem worn. It stays awake on the charger, and you can reach the desktop remotely over VNC.
Two settings apps come with it: Frametop Display Settings for the screens, profiles, and power, and Frametop Input Settings for mice, keyboards, gaze, and button mappings. Optional fixes let Bluetooth LE mice and keyboards like the Swiftpoint Z3 reconnect after they sleep. Install it with one command: see Install on the headset.
Frametop is an independent project, not made by or affiliated with Valve.
Join the Frametop Discord for questions, ideas, and help with your setup.
Frametop doesn't work on the SteamOS beta right now. On the beta (SteamOS 0.4.3), gaze mode can't read the eye tracker, and the desktop has started without its taskbar (#15). Use the stable SteamOS release until this note is gone.
You need a Steam Frame with an internet connection, a keyboard (Bluetooth, or the on-screen one), and about 3 GB of free space.
-
In the launcher, choose Launch a program → Desktop.
-
In the application menu, open System → Konsole.
-
Run:
curl -fsSL https://deejanuz.github.io/frametop/get.sh | bashIt asks which version you want: stable (the
mainbranch, tested releases) or experimental (theexperimentalbranch, the newest features, less tested). Then it clones the repo into~/frametopand runsinstall.sh. To choose without the question, add-s -- --stableor-s -- --experimentalafterbash. By hand, the same isgit clone https://github.com/DeeJanuz/frametop.git ~/frametop, thencd ~/frametopand./install.sh(add--branch experimentalto the clone for experimental).The installer sets up distrobox in your home folder (the system files aren't touched), a Fedora build container, and everything else. The first run downloads 1–2 GB. It asks you three things along the way: whether to install gaze mode (experimental, yes by default) and the Bluetooth fixes, then whether to restart SteamVR. The Bluetooth fixes need your
sudopassword; if you've never set one, runpasswdfirst, or skip them for now. SteamVR has to restart once at the end, which closes everything open in VR, including the terminal. Rebooting the headset works too.
After the restart, Launch a program → Desktop opens the multi-screen desktop, with its screens arranged around where you're facing. Frametop Display Settings and Frametop Input Settings are in the desktop's application menu, under Settings.
If you work in the desktop for long stretches, or leave the headset on a stand, open Frametop Display Settings → Power. Turn on Stay awake while plugged in: by default Steam puts the Frame to sleep after an hour without input, even while it charges. And choose when the displays turn off while the headset isn't used. SteamVR turns them off a few seconds after you take the headset off, but a stand or mount that covers the proximity sensor inside it makes the headset seem worn, and its displays stay on all night.
- Pair it in Steam, under Settings → Bluetooth.
- If you installed the Bluetooth fixes, apply them once for the new device with Frametop Input Settings → Bluetooth → Apply Bluetooth fixes (or
setup/bluetooth/install.sh run). After that it reconnects on its own. - Move the mouse, and the dot appears where you're looking.
| Do this | To get this |
|---|---|
| Point near the bottom of a screen | Its controls fade in: the bar, the curve and roll buttons, and the resize tab on the corner |
| Drag the bar under a screen | Moves the screen; scroll while dragging to push it away or pull it closer. With the mouse, hold right while dragging to tilt it |
| Drag the tab on a screen's bottom right corner | Resizes the screen |
| Click the curve button (next to the bar) | Curves the screen around you, or flattens it |
| Drag the roll button sideways, or scroll on it | Rolls the screen; it snaps level near straight |
| While carrying a screen, sweep its laser across your other controller's ring, then let go | Pins it to that wrist, at its size and distance, as you hold it when you let go; it shows while you see its front. Grab its bar to adjust it (it stays pinned); sweep across the ring again to take it off |
| Set a screen to On your head (Frametop Display Settings, Visibility & pins) | Pins it to your head where it is, like a HUD. Grab its bar to move it; it stays on your head |
| Meta+Shift+R in the desktop | Puts the screens back in their layout (also in the menu as Reset Screen Layout, and mappable to a mouse button) |
| Meta+Shift+H in the desktop | Hides or shows all screens (also in the menu as Hide/Show Screens, and mappable). The Visibility & pins tab of Frametop Display Settings can instead show them only with the dashboard open, or while you look at your wrist |
| Switch a screen to Hidden (Frametop Display Settings, Visibility & pins → Screens shown) | Hides just that screen until you switch it back, whatever the other visibility settings say; new windows that would open on it float instead |
| Play a VR game | The screens hide and your controllers stay in the game. Open the SteamVR dashboard, or press Meta+Shift+H, to see and use them. To keep them visible over games, change During VR games on the Visibility & pins tab; the controllers still stay in the game, and you use the screens with the mouse or the dashboard |
Restarting the desktop (Restart desktop in Frametop Display Settings) closes its windows, but background work you started in it, such as servers, tmux sessions, or builds, keeps running.
| Do this | To get this |
|---|---|
| Move the mouse | The dot moves around you and snaps onto whatever panel it's over |
| Click, right-click, scroll | Acts on the panel under the dot |
| Pick up a controller | The controller gets its laser back; move the mouse to take over again |
You can map the mouse's extra buttons to actions such as Toggle SteamVR dashboard, Recenter pointer, or Head follow on/off on the Buttons page of Frametop Input Settings, and the Frame controllers' buttons on its Controllers page. Pointer speed, dot size, and the rest are on its Pointer page and take effect immediately. If a panel you only look at, such as a performance overlay that follows your view, keeps catching the dot, tick it (or its whole app) on the Ignored panels page, and the pointer passes through it. Head follow, which is experimental and off by default, makes the pointer come along when you turn your head: it stays put until your head turns past the leash angle, then glides back to its place in your view, and a leash of 0 keeps it fixed in your view. It's only lightly tested and not polished; tuning its settings, or improving how it feels, is open to anyone who wants to take it further.
Any desktop window can float in VR as a panel of its own. It stays a window of the same desktop, so drag and drop and the clipboard work between floating windows and the screens, and it's still in the taskbar and Alt+Tab.
| Do this | To get this |
|---|---|
| Meta+Shift+F over a desktop window | Floats that window, or puts it back on its screen if it floats. It acts on the window under the pointer, or the active one if the pointer is over the wallpaper. Rebind it, or map it to a mouse or controller button, in Frametop Input Settings (Keyboard page, or Buttons and Controllers as Float window in VR) |
| Click the float button, left of Close in a window's title bar | The same. Float in VR is also in every window's menu (Alt+F3). Apps that draw their own title bar, like Chromium and Electron apps, don't have the button: use Meta+Shift+F |
| Right-click an app in the Application Launcher (or the taskbar) and pick Launch as Standalone | Starts the app with its window floating, where that app last floated, or in front of you the first time. From a terminal: float/ft-float launch org.kde.dolphin, or float/ft-float run <command> |
| Meta+scroll over a floating window | Scales it up or down |
A profile is a named setup: where the screens are, with their sizes and pins, which ones are hidden, and which apps are open and where their windows are, on a screen or floating.
| Do this | To get this |
|---|---|
| Save as profile… (Frametop Display Settings, Layout & profiles) | Saves the current setup under a name, or updates the profile you're in |
| Pick a profile under Arrangement and press Open profile | Switches to it: the screens move, open windows of its apps go to their places, and the apps that aren't open start. Nothing closes |
| Pick a profile under Start in profile, or run its entry (Frametop: NAME) from SteamVR's Launch a program list | The desktop starts in that profile, or switches to it if it's running. A profile can also go on a key combination, mouse button, or controller button in Frametop Input Settings |
In gaze mode the pointer goes where you look, and the mouse or the keyboard does the last bit. The installer offers it (or run gaze/run.sh install later). Turn it on and calibrate it on the Gaze page of Frametop Input Settings.
| Do this | To get this |
|---|---|
| Tap Meta+J, or Meta+K | A left or right click where you look |
| Hold Meta+J, turn your head onto what you meant, and let go | A click there. Held still for half a second, it becomes a press, and turning your head drags |
| Hold the left mouse button, move the mouse onto what you meant, and let go | A click there. The right button does the same for a right click. Held still, the left button drags |
| Double right click (or double Meta+K) while dragging a screen's bar | Pans and tilts the screen |
| Put the headset on | A quick check: look at the dot for a moment, and the pointer lines up again |
By default the mouse only corrects: while the gaze has the pointer, moving the mouse does nothing until you hold a button. Each correction before a click teaches the tracker where it was off. A correction past the learning limit (55 degrees by default, about half of what you can see) starts a quick check instead. Calibrate, on the Gaze page, runs a full calibration in a panel in front of you: look at each dot and click. Check headset fit shows how well the eye tracker sees your eyes. gaze/README.md has the details.
To keep the Frame on and connected while you're not wearing it, for SSH, remote desktop, or anything else running on it, open the Power tab in Frametop Display Settings:
- Turn off when unused for: how long the headset can go unused before its displays turn off (Never by default). Unused means the headset and controllers haven't moved and no mouse, keyboard, or button was used. SteamVR normally turns the displays off when its proximity sensor says the headset came off, but a stand or mount that covers the sensor makes the headset seem worn, so the displays stay on all night. This setting doesn't depend on the sensor. Pick the headset up or use any input, and the displays come back on.
- Stay awake while plugged in: stops Steam from putting the Frame to sleep while it charges. By default Steam puts it to sleep after an hour without input, even on the charger, which ends remote sessions. This is Steam's own Settings → Power → When Plugged In and Idle setting, so the power button still puts the Frame to sleep, and Steam's battery setting still applies.
With the displays off, the headset keeps tracking and rendering, so it uses about as much power as in use. Leave it on a charger that keeps up with that: a USB-C PD charger, not a 5 V one.
This is an early release, tested on one Steam Frame (SteamOS 0.3.0 build 20260922, SteamVR 2.17.10).
- A SteamOS or SteamVR update can break parts of it until Frametop catches up. After an update, run
cd ~/frametop && scripts/doctor.shin a terminal. It checks what Frametop needs from SteamOS, and says what changed since the versions you last marked as working and what to try. Once everything works,scripts/doctor.sh --mark-goodrecords the versions. If something stops working, please report it. - The first install downloads 1–2 GB for the build container and compiles everything on the headset, which takes several minutes.
- During a VR game you can't show the screens with a controller button, because the game owns the buttons. Open the SteamVR dashboard, press Meta+Shift+H, or use a mapped mouse button instead.
- Flatscreen games aren't detected as games. If your controllers end up working the screens instead of the game, set Controllers on the screens to "Only with the SteamVR dashboard open" (Frametop Display Settings, Visibility & pins tab).
- Typing follows your last click. A controller click on a panel other than the screens (the dashboard, a Steam app) doesn't move typing there; click it with the mouse, or click a screen to bring typing back.
- The screens don't draw a mouse cursor of their own. The 3D mouse's dot or SteamVR's laser shows where you're pointing.
- Profiles reopen apps, not what the apps had open. Tabs, files, and folders are left to each app's own restore.
- Dragging something from one panel to another (a screen and a floating window) works, but the dragged item's icon doesn't show while the pointer is between panels.
- Gaze mode is only as good as its calibration, and that depends on how the headset sits on your face. If the pointer lands off after you adjust the headset, run Quick check or Calibrate on the Gaze page of Frametop Input Settings.
- On SteamVR's Settings page, the 3D mouse shows a laser beam and a larger hit dot, like a controller. SteamVR doesn't tell other programs where that page is (unlike Steam's pages, such as Library), so the mouse used to miss most of it: clicks went through to a desktop screen behind, and the dot disappeared. As a workaround, on that page only, the laser starts near your eye and SteamVR finds the page itself. See docs/design.md.
- Remote desktop over VNC (Frametop Remote Access in the app menu, or
./desktops.sh remote on) needs Tailscale on the Frame. It shows the primary screen only. The app turns it on and off, shows the address, and shows, copies, or changes the VNC password. The password is made at random on the Frame and kept in~/.config/frametop-remote(only you can read it); VNC limits it to 8 characters, and the tailnet encrypts the connection. Turning it on in a desktop that started with it off takes a desktop restart. - Turning the displays off on a stand only turns their backlight off. SteamVR has no way for other programs to put the headset in standby, so tracking and rendering keep running, and the headset draws nearly its full power.
In a terminal on the headset, run:
cd ~/frametop && scripts/report.sh
This writes frametop-report-<date>.txt with version numbers, service states, settings, and recent logs. Bluetooth addresses and the headset's serial number are masked. Then open an issue, describe what you did, what you expected, and what happened, and attach the file. Quick questions can go to Discord instead.
Run the same command again. It updates ~/frametop to the latest of the version you have (or switches, if you pick the other one) and installs it:
curl -fsSL https://deejanuz.github.io/frametop/get.sh | bash
Or by hand: cd ~/frametop && git pull && ./install.sh.
./desktops.sh uninstall # the launcher's Desktop entry goes back to the stock desktop
./desktops.sh relay uninstall
pointer/helper/run.sh uninstall
power/run.sh uninstall
pointer/driver/install.sh uninstall # then restart SteamVR
input-settings/install.sh uninstall
display-settings/install.sh uninstall
remote/install.sh uninstall
setup/bluetooth/install.sh uninstall # if you installed the Bluetooth fixes
hands/run.sh uninstall # if you installed hand tracking by hand
gaze/run.sh uninstall # if you installed the gaze service
gaze/tracker/install.sh uninstall # if you installed our own eye tracker's frame grabber
gaze/probe/install.sh uninstall # if you installed the gaze probe
Your settings stay: ~/.config/frametop.conf, frametop-input.json (button maps and key combinations), frametop-layout.json (the layout and profiles), frametop-float.json, and frametop-remote/ in ~/.config, and the gaze calibration in ~/.local/state/frametop/gaze. So does the desktop's own Plasma setup, in ~/.config/frametop. Delete them too for a clean slate.
A Plasma session runs nested inside ft-screens (screens/), a small Wayland compositor. KWin opens one window per screen, ft-screens sets each window's size, and each frame goes to SteamVR as an overlay without being copied. An input relay (input/) keeps Bluetooth mice working in SteamVR and feeds the mouse to the 3D pointer, which drives a virtual SteamVR controller (pointer/). A power service (power/) turns the displays off while the headset isn't used. docs/reference.md covers each piece, and docs/design.md explains the design and what we learned about SteamVR on the Frame. docs/hazards.md lists known ways the input handling can go wrong.
| Folder | What it is |
|---|---|
get.sh |
The one-line installer: picks stable or experimental, clones or updates the repo, and runs install.sh. |
install.sh |
The one-step installer. Safe to re-run. |
desktops.sh |
Start, stop, and configure the desktop, and install the input relay. |
screens/ |
ft-screens, the compositor (wlroots and OpenVR). |
session/ |
The desktop session script and its config example. |
layout/ |
ft-layout: where the screens float, and their sizes. |
float/ |
Floating windows: ft-floatd and the KWin script that float a desktop window in VR. |
decoration/ |
The desktop's window decoration: Breeze's look plus the float button. |
input/ |
The input relay (Bluetooth mice and keyboards, button maps). |
pointer/ |
The 3D mouse: SteamVR driver, helper service, and a probe tool. |
power/ |
ft-powerd: turns the displays off while the headset isn't used. |
gaze/ |
Gaze mode (experimental): the gaze service, its calibration panel, our own eye tracker, and the gaze probe. See gaze/README.md. |
hands/ |
Hand tracking (experimental, deferred: the installer doesn't offer it). See hands/README.md. |
display-settings/, input-settings/ |
The two settings apps (Kirigami, Python). |
remote/ |
Frametop Remote Access, the app that turns remote desktop over VNC on and off. |
setup/ |
The build container and the Bluetooth fixes. See setup/README.md. |
scripts/ |
Helpers the installers use. They run commands locally on the Frame, or over SSH from a PC. |
The scripts also work from a Linux or WSL PC over SSH, which is easier for editing code. On the Frame they use the local checkout; on a PC they sync the repo to ~/dev/frametop on the Frame and run there.
-
On the Frame, turn on developer mode, set a password with
passwd, and enable SSH withsudo systemctl enable --now sshd. Add your public key to~/.ssh/authorized_keys. deck-tailscale lets you reach it from anywhere. -
On the PC, add the Frame to
~/.ssh/configas hostframe, or setFRAME_HOST:Host frame HostName <the Frame's address> User steamos IdentityFile ~/.ssh/<your-key> -
The Bluetooth fixes need
sudoon the Frame. The installer asks for the password in your terminal (overssh -t). To skip the question, or to install with no terminal, put it in.envat the repo root instead. It's gitignored and never synced:steamos_root_pwd="<password>"
Then run ./install.sh from the PC. If SteamVR isn't running on the Frame, the services that need it start with it later. Daily use:
scripts/doctor.sh # is the Frame reachable and ready?
scripts/doctor.sh --mark-good # and record the versions Frametop works with
scripts/sync.sh # copy the repo to ~/dev/frametop on the Frame
scripts/frame.sh '<cmd>' # run in the dev container, in the Frame's copy
scripts/frame.sh -C <dir> '<cmd>' # same, in a folder of the repo
scripts/frame.sh --host '<cmd>' # run on the SteamOS host
The sync only goes one way. It makes the Frame's copy match your checkout, deleting files there that you've removed, and skips .git, build/, .env, and anything gitignored. Edit on the PC only, since the next sync overwrites changes made in ~/dev/frametop on the Frame.
Programs built in the dev container link against its glibc, which is newer than the host's, so they run inside the container. The SteamVR driver is the exception and is built to run on the host (see pointer/driver/build.sh). AGENTS.md has the working rules, including what not to restart while someone is using the headset.
MIT. See LICENSE.